| Cirrhosis not always caused by alcohol | | Posted Sunday, October 01, 2006 2:57:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | Dear Dr. Donohue, I am the 45-year-old mother of five children. About a year ago, I started itching. The itch moved around, but most of the time the palms of my hands were the worst. I saw a number of doctors and was given a number of medicines, but none worked. More recently, I noticed the whites of my eyes had a yellow tinge, and I went to my family doctor, who sent me to a gastroenterologist. After many tests, he discovered I have primary biliary cirrhosis. Everyone who knows I have cirrhosis thinks I am an alcoholic; I am not. —C.M. Cirrhosis is a scarred and poorly functioning liver. Alcohol excess is the leading cause of cirrhosis, but it's not the only one. Your illness isn't well known. Alcoholism is. That's why people with cirrhosis are unjustly convicted in many people's minds as being alcoholics.... | |
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| | | Tell us about the rabbits, Vic | | Posted Monday, August 21, 2006 1:10:55 AM by Blog57 Team | | Red Deer MLA Victor Doerksen is the latest member of the Klein government to throw his hat into the ring to replace Ralph Klein in the premier's chair. The 52-year-old resigned as innovation and science minister this week and announced Thursday he wants to be premier. It's a surprising move from the relatively low-profile MLA, best known for his calls to get John Steinbeck's Pulitzer-prize-winning novel Of Mice and Men removed from the provincial curriculum because God's name was too often taken in vain. Klein himself seemed particularly perplexed by the announcement. "There's nothing he did in cabinet or caucus that would have led me to believe he was remotely interested in the leadership," he said. THE BUZZ ABOUT LATTE It's hard to know these days just how much coffee is enough or too much.... | |
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| | | Evidence of Coffee's Benefits is Drip-Dripping Out of the Research | | Posted Saturday, July 22, 2006 7:02:01 PM by Blog57 Team | | PHILADELPHIA _ Over the centuries, coffee has been cursed for making soldiers undependable, women infertile, peasants rebellious, and worse. In England in 1674, for example, the anonymous authors of the Women's Petition Against Coffee complained that they were suffering in the bedroom because men were constantly in coffeehouses, slurping that "nauseous Puddle-water": "That Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish Liquor called COFFEE ... has ... Eunucht our Husbands ... that they are become as Impotent as Age." Makes you wonder what those guys were putting in their daily grind besides cream and sugar. The point is, coffee has always been more than a beverage, and its health effects have always been controversial. After all, coffee is chock-full o' the drug 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine _ better known as caffeine (even decaf has caf) _ plus a wholelatte other chemicals and additives.... | |
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